True Weapon Ceremony 2
Slowly, consciousness slipped into Art and his eyes flickered for some time before opening and being greeted by the clear blue sky.
He sat up feeling groggy before looking around. He could see faces he recognized and some he couldn't and a lot of them were staring at him.
He remembered getting drugged in the jet along with everyone else and after looking around once more, he realized that he was the last to wake up as they were all on their feet.
This was quite embarrassing.
He remembered his system activating defensive measures which failed because of his low intelligence stat point.
According to the information given by the system, intelligence stat was focused on the ability to comprehend and use magic spells.
Since his mana core had always been a problem and later got locked, he didn't find it useful to place stats points there, but he was wrong as it clearly had other functions connected to the mind and body so he decided to no longer leave it behind.
His system probably wanted him to learn some things on his own.
"How long do you plan on sitting there? Quit holding us back you weakling," JV jeered and Art who didn't seem to have heard him at all moved his hands several times before standing up.
The unfamiliar faces that he saw all had silver hair except one who was a girl with long brown hair instead, so he believed that they were trainees from other branch families and they had all been merged to do this together.
But he didn't know any of them as the former body owner didn't participate in any activity.
This was the first he was actually doing.
Some of the trainees from the other branch families were looking at him because they heard some infamous things about him but seeing him for the first time, even though he was the last to wake up as they had also fallen unconscious, it seemed that the Von's description of him had been over exaggerated as even though he didn't look healthy, he wasn't as bad as they said.
If only they met him two weeks ago their thoughts would've been different.
Art also darted his eyes across to all of them with a few being interesting, but the person who drew his attention the most was a girl.
She was very beautiful being able to awaken the desires of every man and not just him but many others especially those from other branch families kept staring at her.
She had long straight silver hair which stretched slightly below her butt, ruddy skin, and blood-red lips.
Even though she was very beautiful, what truly attracted him was by just looking at her, he could tell that she was a battle maniac.
The big excited smile on her face for getting a true weapon proved it. That aside, she was strange as her right eye was purple and her left was red.
This was his first time seeing someone with two different eye colours. Unlike Iris who only lost to her in drawing attention, with a calm, assuring, yet distant aura, this girl had a dangerous and wild aura around her.
A short boy with silver spiky hair who was standing beside her shook his head before tapping her.
"Beatrix, you have to calm your excitement, it's changed."
By the expression on her face after hearing this, it was noticeable that she wasn't aware of her different eye colour. So she closed it for some seconds and after opening it, they were both purple.
Art decided to look into that later. There was also a boy who kept staring ahead with a smile on his face. It was as if he already knew the weapon he was going to get and was pleased with it.
Taking his gaze away from them, he brought it to his surrounding and after looking around for some time, this was a fortress most likely to protect the large cave in front of them.
Well, that was what he would love to say but there was barely anyone around, so the cave seemed unguarded. He didn't know if it was because they were coming, and choose not to get them intimidated or if this was how it was every day, with the people who guarded it staying hidden.
They were surrounded by low grasses which spanned over 50 meters in radius and thereon after were huge trees that cast their shadows over them.
Looking into the cave from here, barely a thing inside could be seen as it was pitch black. He could sight only a few people stationed at different points around the cave.
All of the trainees were standing on inscriptions written in the shape of a circle and he recognized it to be a teleportation circle. He was sure that this was difficult to draw.
Mana cores also acted as a source of power to runic magic when the inscriber can't continue to supply mana to it.
Runic magic, also called inscription magic was something very useful to learn.
It is the use of symbols that when put together gives a command to mana into performing a specific task.
It might sound easy but this was really difficult as only a handful of powerful runic users existed in the Kingdom.
Most people who spend years learning it could just inscribe little commands. This was something that depended on how much the mage can comprehend and now he was seeing more reason for the importance of intelligence stat.
Lord Gajeel clapped his hands causing everyone's attention to be drifted to him. He had been put in charge of the ceremony by the higher-ups.
"I believe we're all ready for this, so I'll be saying something you a need to know."
They all listened attentively to what he was about to say, not planning to miss out even a single word. After all, this day was very important.
"When you enter the Room of Alchemy, you would see hundreds of glowing orbs suspended from the ground. Those orbs are your true weapons. If you are chosen by an orb, it would float into your chest. The higher from the ground an orb is suspended the greater potential it is most likely to have. Of course, this doesn't mean that lower orbs are weaker, you'll never know if a legend might be hiding there."
"I thought we were the ones who were going to choose according to our capabilities?" A boy voiced out the thought of most of them.
"I and any other supervisor never told you that. You just assumed it. Well, this set wasn't the first and won't be the last to believe that," he shook his head in disappointment.
"Well as I was saying, the higher orbs are very picky, some of them haven't chosen anyone to wield them for almost a hundred years and you'll have to last long in there if you want a chance to acquire a higher orb, and believe me, lasting in there isn't easy as we all know. Even I would get lightheaded after some minutes."
Most gulped down after listening to this and Art had the worst reaction.
"What the.... This is insane...…"
He was basically saying that the strength of the true weapon gained depended on how long you last.
Art was hoping it would be more like searching quickly for a weapon you are compatible with, so he was planning on zooming around the place in search of a weapon and getting one before falling unconscious.
How the hell was he going to last?
He just kept moving from one problem to another. With his mana core sealed, not getting a decent weapon would be disastrous for him.
"Now," Lord Gajeel continued, "If by chance you get a powerful true weapon with high self-consciousness, it doesn't just end there. You'll be taken to a parallel world where it would access and see if you are good enough to wield it and use its power.
If you fail, it would leave you and get replaced by most likely another weaker.
Most people fall unconscious before the orb enters them. So you might not even know how high your orb comes from.
Now, you may all proceed into the cave of Alchemy. Keep moving forward into your destiny."